Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Finsbury Park 5 a side football consultation
I have been down to Finsbury Park to have a look at the the plans and talk to some of the Haringey Council staff about the possible plans for a 5 a side football scheme. Its just initial consultation to gauge public feeling in the area - worth going down for look and a chat.
Tags for Forum Posts: finsbury park, finsbury park 5 a side, parks
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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By comparison, Anne, you may want to look at this Google Map of the 5-a-side pitches which operate on part of the Frederick Knight Sports Ground in Willoughby Lane N17.
Using the Google 'ruler' tool, they seem to be longer - at 10 metres x 31 metres. These pitches are operated by Powerleague. If anyone else has checked out other 5-a-side operations the Google map reference would be handy.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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From a blog article about it:
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Haringey council, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to make Finsbury Park pay. They are going to do this by allowing a private company to lease land in the park from them and charge people to use it. Not only this but they are going to go through the motions of a "consultation" with residents despite the fact that the plans were drawn up by Aedas Architects in 2006 and presumably a commercial operator has been found already.
According to the FAQ (all your smart arse objections dealt with ahead of time) the council have provided in the consultation documents:
- it will cost £5 per person per hour to play at peak times (5:30 until 10:30?)
- the council cannot afford to build it because of the current economic climate.
- it will cost £2 million to build.
- the lease period is "yet to be determined".
£5 * 10 (people per game) * 10 (games per hour) * 5 (peak hours per night) * 7 (nights per week) * 52 (weeks per year)
= £910000 per year in revenue.
Just how much of that will our council be seeing as income?
A businessperson would fall over themselves to put £2 million down and get even quarter of a million a year back at the moment. How long is this lease going to be for?
Presumably due to the commercial nature of the venue, there are to be 83 car parking spaces provided. This is enough carparking for 83 people, out of the possible 100 playing at any one time, to bring their own individual car to Finsbury Park. Let's assume that they have sized the carpark for twice as many cars as they expect for one game, some of those footballer types might like to drive a mate there in their Discovery/Aston Martin/DB Vantage. That means that each weeknight there will be an extra 41 journeys made in North London, by car, per hour. I need not remind my readers of the fantastic public transport options available at Finsbury Park station which is just down the hill a bit from the proposed site. The FAQ states that they want all these carparking spaces to avoid "overspill" onto the roads surrounding the park. How does this fit in with going green?
Let's be honest with your residents Haringey. This proposal was first mooted by a commercial organisation after the regeneration of the park in 2004. It was put on the back burners because it was naughty to use public land for commercial gain but now we think we have a "needs must" situation.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Just to add, the consultation on this closes in a few weeks so do please take a few minutes to fill in the questionnaire on the Haringey website here and register your views.
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Permalink Reply by LE-newby on
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The more I read about it the more I'm against it. I just don't believe that it's in residents best interests, no matter how they talk it up it's still handing over much needed public space which is well used at the moment. The car parking spaces are unnecessary. Finsbury Park has fantastic transport links, the council should be encouraging people to be more green not encouraging more driving in the area.
I think allotments are a great idea but I think a cheap re vamp by the council would be perfectly fine if they don't have a big budget. They could just encourage more people to get different sports being played on the courts. I know My neighbour is scouring the area to find somewhere to play lacross and I would love to play Netball if a league was up and running there. Can't they just paint the different lines and put some extra nets as needed for different sports up??! When I go past there are usually people doing lots of different things, basketball, kids learning to ride bikes, interval training and people just doing workouts on them. I think the space is used quite well already.
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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Should people want to catch up, this is one of three discussions on this issue on HoL.
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horrified at the thought!!!!! Yes sport is important for improved health, but so is relaxing with family and friends in the local park. It is already fully used and quiet space is difficult to find. Why is booze being sold in the park, not a healthy option!!!!contradicts healthy usage - supports commercial not community. I do not want to encourage drunk people in the park, will you eventually stop us bringing our own drinks in???? not good promotion for young people, plenty of local pubs and bars, and shops providing There are many options available and we have many sports facilities in this area. Football is not the only option, if necessary, why not use the area where the american football pitch is? Why are you privatising our park!!!! we loose enough time and space there with other events throughout the year. Also the congestion in that area is already pretty heavy, how will this effect that area? really very unhappy about this, wondering what has happened in the management of this park, and what happened to the wonderful gallery that we had there? there are sooo many other options to consider for this area, if it needs developing! and what about the leaking parts of the park, where part of the park is unusable due to boggy land? Our land is not to be swapped for a few gold coins!!!
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They have one of these in a park at Turnham Green.
Have any councillors been down to see it and talk to the other borough's councillors about it? Guess what it doesn't have that ours will have?
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Does anyone know when the decision about this is being made? The Haringey website just says that something will be published shortly.
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Oh Alison, the decision was made long ago.
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The point of the cartoon in this context being?
That 'they' - the Council, the authorities, the rich, the powerful - control the process and have it all sewn-up already?
So there's no point in trying to find out about the 5-a-side proposal - or any other. Or in making criticisms and suggestions for change or improvement. No point in sharing ideas and thoughts with other people in order to make a collective protest as loud and clear and informed as possible, about things which are mistaken and misconceived.
If so, it seems to me like self-fulfilling victimhood.
"Mongo only pawn . . . in game of life." (Blazing Saddles)
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